How do SAT scores compare among Waldorf and traditionally schooled students?
The Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) provides some data with respect to SAT score performance as reprinted Oppenheimer’s article, “Schooling the Imagination” (1999.). Oppenheimer indicates that Waldorf graduates have never been tracked in this country. He notes that, “In the end, the measure of a school lies in the graduates it produces. The Waldorf record seems pretty impressive. Consider students’ scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Despite Waldorf students’ unfamiliarity with standardized tests, their SAT scores have generally come in well above the national average, particularly on verbal measures. While definitive data are not available for the U.S., a German survey, published in 1981 looked at 1460 Waldorf graduates. Twenty-two percent had passed a rigorous German achievement test-triple the rate for state-school students. Oppenheimer quotes Kathleen O’Connor, a college counselor at the Washington Waldorf School, who says ‘When they get direction
